Product Description

A tandem is thought to be the most challenging combination to drive, and certainly the most difficult to drive well. In this book, Paul Doliveux has brought together a wealth of knowledge and understand from a number of related disciplines to help the tandem driver, whether novice or advanced, succeed in this art. A student of the great Nuno Oliveira in dressage, Do Doliveux applies his experience of riding and training dressage horses to the schooling of horses for tandem driving. He gives full and clear descriptions of methods of lungeing, long-reining and whip handling, and - of vital importance - very detailed instructions on the methods of rein handling. Supported by many diagrams, these instructions cover both one-handed and two-handed techniques and describe the necessary steps for turning left and right at various angles. As well as discussing suitable breeds of horse, different carriages and types of harness, the author covers much historical detail and includes anecdotes which are both amusing and enlightening. He devotes several chapters to competition, including all aspects of FEI driving trials, showing and advanced dressage. Written in a delightful and personal style, this book will appeal not only to tandem drivers and drivers of other combinations, but to all horsemen interested in the psychology and physiology of the horse and in gaining insights into the finer points of equitation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1026053 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-16
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 168 pages

About the Author
Paul Doliveux was brought up near Biarritz, on the south-west coast of France, before the war, in the company of the English community which has lived in the Pays Basque since the time of Queen Victoria. Here he learnt English, riding, fox-hunting and carriage driving from his English friends. He went to Paris to complete his medical studies and practiced as an orthopaedic surgeon, living with his wife and three sons in the Sologne, south of the Loire. Knowledge gained from orthopaedics about the mechanics of movement helped him to understand clearly how to choose horses for dressage riding and for tandem driving seriously, training his two hunters put to a Dennet-springed cabriolet, and teaching himself from English, French and German texts ranging from Xenophon to Sallie Walrond and Tom Coombs. He competed in France for a number of years. A member of l'Association Francais d'Attelage, the British Driving Society and the Swiss Tandem Club, Dr Doliveux has written articles on tandem driving for Achenbach magazine. This book, his first in English, was written with the cooperation of Catherine Massu, an Anglo-French tandem driver. 1